The present invention relates to a technique in which a control device controls a plurality of controlled devices, and in particular, to a technique in which a control device identifies a plurality of controlled devices.
In order for a control device to identify a plurality of controlled devices, it is typical to assign a unique ID such as EUI-64 to each controlled device. EUI-64 is a 64-bit-long ID which uniquely identifies a device, and the address system thereof is standardized by IEEE. Namely, in a 64-bit-long identifier, the high 24-bit part is called Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) or company_id, which is a number assigned uniquely to a manufacturer by IEEE. The remaining low 40-bit part is called an extension identifier, and IEEE is not involved in the assignment thereof. If a manufacturer to which OUI has been assigned observes a rule of assigning numbers without any, all devices having EUI-64 identifiers will have unique identifiers, respectively.
Further, a system in which a central management device assigns an identification code dynamically to an image forming device has also been proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-169059). The identification code is adapted to be switched depending on whether or not the central management device is connected to an outside management device.
However, assigning unique identifiers to all devices at the time of shipment places a heavy management burden on the manufacturer. This problem becomes prominent as the number of manufactured devices increases.
It is true that according to the system proposed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-169059, an identification code is assigned to a terminal device each time the image forming device is connected to the central management device, and so a problem of the management burden placed on the manufacturer being heavy is solved. However, if an identification code is assigned to a terminal device each time the image forming device is connected to the central management device, another problem is caused that the number of processing steps increases in both of the central management device and the image forming device.